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Comment by TillE | Hacker News Reader

"Wonder about the witnesses in all these stories, who coincidentally always seem to consist of the same set of people."

Yeah... From what I've seen, the confirmed first-person stories suggest that Appelbaum is probably a huge asshole, but the worst stuff is contained in anonymous accounts filtered through a handful of people, at least one of whom has a weird axe to grind about "plagiarism".

Something feels very off about the whole coordinated effort. This is not a normal way to accuse someone of terrible criminal behavior, by mixing those stories in with mere jerkitude.

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I think the first-person stories of @hypatiadotca [0] and @violetblue [1] suggest more than that.

[0] https://hypatia.ca/2016/06/07/he-said-they-said/

[1] https://twitter.com/violetblue/status/740446500891860992 / https://twitter.com/violetblue/status/740446782505779200 / etc. (argh twitter)

I think these people would be wise to go to the police rather than writing blog posts/twitter comments that imply vague wrong doing without any clear crimes involved.

Honeywell stated a couple things that clearly violate consent, and could reasonably be described as rising to the level of legally actionable. I was very critical of some of the weak discounting of the possibility of JTRIG-style character attacks, but when notable, reputable people in the community come forward with specific relevant first-person claims, I believe it's important to take it more seriously.

It's impossible to draw any conclusions without a fair trial. Apart from saying we should assume innocent until proven guilty. It's a really good idea that seems to have been marginalised in the age of the web.

If no clear crime was committed, why on earth would going to the police have done any good?

I feel for the victims not going to the police, but then my question is what is the alternative?

If the "victims" don't go to the police, then the alternative is we all slowly devolve into a world of smearing, guilt-upon-accusation, witch hunts, vigilantes, blackmail, shared-make-believe and anarchy.

>Something feels very off about the whole coordinated effort. This is not a normal way to accuse someone of terrible criminal behavior, by mixing those stories in with mere jerkitude.

The "murder, rape, and jaywalking" language used by the original complainants really raised red flags for me, as well. The fact that all of the accusers mention plagiarism, of all things, suggests they have an axe to grind and see this as a legitimate move in that fight.

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